Facile preparation of copper nanoparticles-decorated reduced graphene oxide for the catalytic reduction of water toxins

Nowadays, one of the major goals for the sustainable development, especially in the water-stressed countries, is to overcome the shortage of clean drinking water. So, it is the need of the hour to develop strategies to lower the water contamination level mainly caused by nitro compounds and dyes. For this purpose, we synthesized a nanocomposite by decorating copper nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide to catalyze the chemical reduction of nitro compounds and industrial dyes for their fast decontamination from water. The prepared nanocomposite material was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV–visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The nanocomposite was found to remain intact up to 200 °C as affirmed by TGA analysis. The prepared nanocomposite was observed to catalyze the borohydride reduction reactions of 4-nitrophenol, 2-nitrophenol, and 2-nitroaniline with rate constants as 0.265, 0.072, and 0.233 min−1, respectively. The catalyst performed equally well for the reduction of organic dyes, i.e., methyl orange, eosin Y, and methylene blue with rate constants as 0.206, 0.108, and 0.094 min−1, respectively. To ascertain kinetic feasibility for each of these reactions, activation parameters were also calculated. Afterward, the re-usability of the catalyst was examined and observed to be reduced to 46